Infringing a basic human right

What is the most basic human right?

Right to live?

Right to decide how one should live? Or right to choose?

Surely it must be the freedom of choice, no?

Well, in Singapore, if you believe so, you'll be easily frustrated.

I am. I see our government as being overly paternalistic. Good or bad, the jury is still out on this.

It seems that our government justifies its actions by being utterly convinced that deep down, the average Singaporean often makes bad decisions, hence the need to relieve him or her of certain options.

Therefore, we have our many rules and regulations.
The threat of a fine or jail looming for any out-of-line move.
It gets into our Subconscious. This explains our natural tendency to get in line when queuing for anything and everything.

But it's all for a good reason, many would argue.

That's why Singapore is soooo efficient. So clean. So safe. So reliable. So perfect.
Did I mention so predictable?

This lack of choice debate is not new in Singapore. Many live with it. Some live happily ever after with it.

But the grudging acceptance of this goes into overdrive in the ongoing debate on our CPF savings, widely seen as our retirement savings.

It's forced savings by the way – where a large portion of our monthly salaries go to a common pool managed and invested by the government – and which many have invariably accepted as a long-term good.

It used to be when one turns 55, one gets to withdraw a chunk of this compulsory savings which would have earned a sizable interest by then. But this, only after leaving in the cache a compulsory sum of $99,000 for monthly withdrawals once you hit 62, to help us pay for basic needs in our old age.

But all this is set to change. The government will hold back the monthly withdrawals stage by stage till you hit 67, meaning the money that you get at 55 will have to stretch further.

The reason: Singaporeans are living longer. Today's average life expectancy is 80 years old. God forbid, in their twilight years, our old folks form a queue outside government agencies begging for help.

Thus, the government is delaying us getting our hands on our money.

It has even thought of another iron-clad way to ensure more of our hard-earned savings don't get frittered away.

We have no choice in this. It's called compulsory annuity. At age 55, they will take a chunk of our CPF savings and put it in an annuity, which gives returns only from age 85 and beyond. That is, if you live that long. If not, you don't get a cent of it back. Neither will your family. It goes back to the common pool for the next beneficiary. That's how annuities work anyway.

Sigh... the government's doing this because somehow, they think we'll trifle away the money, if left on our own. And we'll be left with nothing in our old age.

And because Singapore doesn't believe in welfarism, who's going to help you when that happens?

The government says it won't be able to cope.

Like most developed nations, Singapore has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world. The Prime Minister, in his closely-watched National Day Rally speech recently, ominously warns us that in less than 30 years, 1 in 5 Singaporeans will be aged 62 and above. Today, we already have some 500 Singaporeans aged 100 and above.

And it's made worse by the fact that we're not having enough babies.

It seems tweaking the CPF withdrawal rules is just one solution.

The other, is to make Singaporeans work longer - beyond today's legal retirement age of 62.
To quote the PM, the government is "legislating for re-employment till 65". Not forcing employers to hire workers beyond 62, mind you, but to make them 're-employ' workers beyond 62. The term 're-employ' is preferred as this allows flexibility for the employer to hire aged workers under different terms (lower pay), even different job scopes.

But I am rather disturbed by the idea of men and women in their twilight years still slogging away just so they can afford to live. I see many of such cases today. Weather-beaten bodies bending over to wipe tables, shine lift doors and mop toilet floors.

It used to be, one can dream of retirement as a time for living a simple life with less stress. That day may never come.

Worse, it appears we have no say in all these.